The Hubble Space Telescope sends back images from the edge of the observable universe, yet Edwin Hubble himself lies in a secret, unmarked grave in California whose coordinates his wife took to her own grave. This episode traces the life of the man who doubled the size of the known universe and then proved it was expanding, starting with his unlikely beginnings as a champion athlete who won seven first-place titles in a single high school track meet, led the University of Chicago to its first Big Ten basketball title, and then studied law at Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship to honor a promise to his dying father.

After teaching high school Spanish and coaching basketball in Indiana, Hubble finally pursued astronomy, rushed his PhD to serve in World War I, and arrived at Mount Wilson in 1919 just as the 100-inch Hooker telescope came online. U ...